Painted Ladies
"Painted Ladies" is the seventh episode of Season Ten and the one hundred thirty-ninth of the series. It aired November 21, 2016. Summary A canoeist finds the dead victim in a swan boat floating on the lake. While at first not clear what killed him, Dr. Ogden determines he died about 5 to 12 hours ago and finds a flirtation card on the body. Murdoch deduces that a woman gave him the card to arrange a meeting, then he brought her for a ride on the lake. Upon closer inspection, Ogden detects the smell of bitter almonds, possibly death by cyanide. Love was in the air and so was murder for a poor victim who didn’t get the ‘fun and results’ he was expecting. Meanwhile, could George Crabtree’s sweetheart be connected to a murder– yet again? Character Revelations *While Nina Bloom doesn't give flirtation cards, she receives and collects them. *Henry confesses about his 'charm' with women: "I always do fail". Higgins lacks self-confidence with the ladies. *Julia confesses,"Now, William,... I sometimes like to use a little lip rouge myself... " Continuity * When the Inspector is away (at the Olympics) the Constables will play at the Station House. * Her studies at the Women's Medical College (ep.1005) is keeping Miss James from the City Morgue during this case. * Constables McNabb and Jackson play a card trick on Higgins but at the end the outcome is not one Jackson expected. * Julia introduces William to Oscar Ducharme, her purveyor of cosmetics. William buys his wife a necklace by the end of the visit for a list of women who uses the rouge in question. Historical References * The Victorian swan boats were inspired by an opera: Bostonian Robert Paget was searching for a way to conceal the machinery and human driver of a new, foot-powered paddleboat he invented in 1877. When he recalled seeing Wagner's opera "Lohengrin," the idea of covering his boats with giant, carved swans came to him. In the opera, the hero searches for the love of his life in a boat drawn by a swan * Victorians loved to communicate via calling card: there were mourning cards, cards for different celebrations, and of course dance cards. All of them were a kind of social gauntlet—a formal way of getting acquainted and keeping in touch. The young people took the calling cards a step further using risque flirtation cards to meet away from their chaperone and break the Victorian rules of proper courting. Consider the cards the Tinder of the time. * As Oscar Ducharme points out, "Despite their beautifully transformative potential, cosmetics are still perceived as wicked." * Not for the squeamish, in the early 1900s the tapeworm diet started to be advertised along with more sophisticated peddling of such products as the diet industry boom begins. Trivia * Second time in Season 10 that Rebecca James (Mouna Traoré) and Inspector Thomas Brackenreid (Thomas Craig) do not appear. Errors Cast Main Cast Yannick Bisson as Detective William Murdoch Hélène Joy as Dr. Julia Ogden Thomas Craig as Inspector Thomas Brackenreid Jonny Harris as Constable George Crabtree Recurring Cast Lachlan Murdoch as Constable Henry Higgins Kristian Bruun as Constable Slugger Jackson Erin Agostino as Nina Bloom Katy Breier as Lydia Hall Nathan Hoppe as Constable McNabb Guest Cast Thom Allison as Oscar Ducharme Linzee Barclay as Bessie Fellowes Adam Rodness as Robert Roth Uncredited Cast Gallery mm1007 Painted Ladies 2a.PNG|Crime scene... mm1007 Painted Ladies 3 Flirtation card.PNG|Calling card... mm1007 Painted Ladies 4 Victim .PNG|First victim... Category:Season Ten